The Foreign Office could refuse to sanction travel to countries on the Government’s “green” and “amber” lists since its travel advice is published independently of the “traffic light” system, throwing doubt on holidays to some destinations this summer. The Times has the story.
It emerged last night that even destinations on the green or amber list could be rendered off-limits because the Foreign Office publishes its own travel advice, independently of the traffic-light system. This is based on factors such as the risk of individuals getting trapped by coronavirus restrictions or the capacity and quality of the country’s health services.
Most tour operators will refuse to run holidays in countries to which the Foreign Office does not advise travel. Disregarding Foreign Office advice also invalidates most travel insurance policies.
The issue risks a repeat of last summer when the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Foreign Office published separate lists for safe overseas travel, with some countries appearing on one but not the other.
Fears that travel advice may diverge from the traffic light system led to industry leaders and MPs calling on the Government last night to ensure that the two were aligned.
Tim Alderslade, Chief Executive of Airlines U.K., which represents carriers such as easyJet and British Airways, said that Foreign Office advice on essential travel “should only be in place for destinations where the risk to travellers is unacceptably high”…
In a further complication, the Foreign Office is requiring cruise operators to sign a “memorandum of understanding” that requires them to agree to the cost and liabilities of repatriating any Britons if they become trapped by a Covid outbreak on a ship.
Industry sources said they were concerned that the paperwork could complicate the restart of international cruises for some companies.
Overseas travel is already set to be a far more complicated affair when/if it returns on May 17th than it was pre-lockdown, especially due to hefty testing costs that travellers – even those visiting “green list” countries – will have to meet. It is expected that the Government will not put any European countries on the travel “red list”, but only a handful of countries – including Israel, Gibraltar and Iceland – are likely to feature on the “green list”. If the Foreign Office decides not to sanction travel to these countries because of Covid then their position on the “green list” will become redundant anyway.
The Times report is worth reading in full.
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Green, red, whatever, don’t care. Feel sorry for those who have compelling reasons to go abroad and hope it’s made as easy as possible but I won’t be brimming with gratitude to the govt for being “allowed” to go on holiday.
No intention of playing their coercion games
Will stay home
Keep posting this.⬇️⬇️
India has a population of 1.37 billion
The DT has reported their 2000 Covid deaths yesterday as though it were a medical catastrophe.
These deaths will be among the elderly who were already close to death (as they have been in every other nation)
That is one Covid death per 70 million Indians. (Or roughly being struck by lightning TWICE odds!)
Is the information on Worldometers reliable? Yesterday 136 deaths per million population. Today 138 deaths per million. Dropping like flies?
Not just you. I recall an anonymous civil servant from within the DoH revealing that Hancock had left specific instructions to his advisors that no potential references to “dangerous new variants” should be allowed to be wasted.
We had a trip to Croatia which was to be in mid July cancelled yesterday.
Quite possibly being marketed directly at those groups who are trashing the uk government’s attempts to jab everyone by refusing to take it. Very soon I fully expect to see some cynical and ham fisted ‘see what happens to your [mother/father/aunt/grandparent] (translate into required language) in X country where they don’t have our amazing interventions’ style comms and messaging.
Definitely not just you. Article on the Slog yesterday about the propaganda campaign: “The BBC tells us that “some people” have died waiting for oxygen, the Indian health service is “completely overwhelmed” and the country now has “sixteen million cases”. So it’s a disaster, right? Well actually, no – it isn’t. The Indian health ministry has already made it clear that the Covid19 variant they’re dealing with this year has “a considerably lower death rate than the previous version”. Go to the Worldometer site, and you’ll see that India’s deaths per million is a minute 134: that’s 7% of the US and French figures, 6% of the UK and Italy’s and the lowest by far of any country in the Top 30 for cases. Virtually no vaccination has been undertaken in India (only 1.3% are fully vaccinated) and the country is not using lockdowns. The Times of India has just denied the BBC’s ‘deaths from oxygen shortage’ fakery. What India IS doing, however, is employing the anti-inflammatory drugs tocilizumab and itolizumab and the antivirals favipiravir and hydroxychloroquine on a very wide scale. Go to Pharma site/accolyte spaces, and you’ll see all four drugs being rubbished: the Pharmafia and their bureaucratic whores don’t want any signs of a success to… Read more »
”Traffic light system.” ”Road map.” How many more patronising buzz phrases can these arrogant and ignorant people think up?
Re the eye-watering cost of tests for travellers. How is it that the Government is pushing twice-weekly tests in everyday life – for FREE? But travellers must pay a three-figure sum?
Are the “travel tests” special in some way? Do they come with a free meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant thrown in?
I think there should be a court case about this, and will happily chip in to fund one.
there is zero justification for this stance of not allowing people to leave the country to visit a “green” zone – other than it is part of a systematic plan to ruin the travel industry – if you do not decondition people to expect to be able to travel how else do you achieve the 75% reduction in emissions targets by 2030?